Tags
I’m going to do my part … by escaping the city to live with my in-laws and telecommuting. For the majority of residents (who probably don’t have that option), it must be nice to know that once again the government doesn’t care.
31 Sunday May 2015
Posted i hate toronto
inTags
I’m going to do my part … by escaping the city to live with my in-laws and telecommuting. For the majority of residents (who probably don’t have that option), it must be nice to know that once again the government doesn’t care.
30 Saturday May 2015
Posted health, Uncategorized
in30 Saturday May 2015
Posted environment, social issues
inTags
It’s hard to “use public transit” when the TTC is closed, City of Toronto. Let’s review: no service St. Clair to Downsview, not even OPEN before 9 AM… Do you lazy shits just never have to be anywhere before noon?
Must be nice to have a cushy government job.
29 Friday May 2015
Posted health, Uncategorized
inOkay, I admit that I like to cook and I rarely buy prepacked things — at least not since my high-school pop-tart addiction. But seriously, people. At this point, the middle-class reformers are just SO DUMB that they drive me crazy. So let’s just get some things clear:
* GLUTEN IS NOT BAD FOR YOU if you’re not in the >5% of the population who suffers from celiac disease. It’s just not. Sorry.
* ORGANIC IS NOT BETTER FOR YOU, as multiple studies have shown — including studies run by independent organizations AND pro-organic organizations.
* CHEMICALS ARE NOT BAD FOR YOU. Again, sorry. You know what’s a chemical? “Citric acid” — i.e. concentrated lemon juice. Acetic acid — i.e. vinegar. AIR. WATER.
… and so on, and so forth.
Seriously, people. Take a chemistry class, take a biology class, and come back when you’ve cleared your heads. And once you actually KNOW something, I won’t be that upset when you choose an apple over cheetos.
29 Friday May 2015
Posted education
inTags
A new report from Europe notes that positions for PhD holders are scarce, and students and degree-holders are depressed because
only a “tiny proportion” will find work in academia
This is, of course, the situation that North America has been dealing with for years (see examples here and here). And to be honest, so has Europe; their governing bodies are just late to the party.
Answers seem to fall into two camps: (1) train fewer students (currently the model at Hopkins only, it seems); or (2) train students for jobs in industry (currently the preferred option).
Why is #2 better?
The answer is a bit complex, but chances are that universities and industry prefer #2, while students (and/or recent grads without a permanent position) prefer #!.
Graduate training is intensive and many students will drop out along the way. Attrition varies from program to program, but in my program it was around 75%. So if you want to graduate one person, you need to take in four — there’s really no model for predicting which ones will succeed. From the university perspective, then, a steady supply of newcomers is needed for money AND to ensure an adequate supply of research and teaching aides.
(yes, aides. Let’s not fool ourselves.)
From the student perspective, though, a PhD that ends with a job in industry — or no job at all — can be a time sink. There are a lot of reasons to do PhD work: courses are great if you like school; research is fun; you like the topic; etc. But the end point of a PhD is the dissertation, which is a 1+-year, book-length research project. The majority of attrition happens at the dissertation stage. The mental illness and isolation crops up at the dissertation stage. And can you think of any job that requires a book-length research project?
Yeah, I can’t either.
But does that mean that the appropriate thing to do is change the PhD, get rid of the dissertation, and start preparing students for other jobs? What if they went to school because they wanted to write a dissertation? What about those students who actually like the teaching/research/service triad of being a professor?
There aren’t many of them, to be sure. But maybe it’s time to start differentiating between those students who really like teaching or really like research and those who understand that a commitment to academia requires both. Plus a lot of time spent sitting in meetings while the same arguments are made over and over again.
28 Thursday May 2015
Tags
… except when they’re high-powered executives who want some more letters after their name. Especially when those courses are useless, and exist to prove money for business schools.
I guess I can’t blame a magazine called Business in Vancouver for not calling them out?
27 Wednesday May 2015
Posted Uncategorized
inA picture’s worth a thousand words, so a selfie is worth the effort of writing up what you’re doing at every moment of the day?
No wonder children are only half-literate.
24 Sunday May 2015
Posted environment, Uncategorized
inTags
Meanwhile, there’s a frost warning in Toronto. But climate change isn’t real, guys.
23 Saturday May 2015
Posted money, social issues, Uncategorized
inTags
Remember when there was that fight about grad students trying to live on 15k or 13k a year? Now take a look at the tables.
09 Saturday May 2015
Posted Uncategorized
inA thorough review of useless bus stops WOULD be nice. So would making Wheel-Trans more reliable for those who need it. But the TTC has been unwilling to make substantial service changes for years. Good luck, mayor.